My Name is Derek Storm
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: I don't own Derek Storm, either. Rating: K Time: An AU Season Four.
"This is the stupidest idea I've ever heard."
His handler smiled at him.
"Tim, just look at the picture, okay?"
"I'm serious. Compared to this, the Viet Nam War was a strategic masterpiece. The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a classic covert operation. The…"
He was cut off by the Team's boss.
"Tim, why don't you let us do the talking and you do the listening?"
He groaned inwardly. If the boss was shutting down his complaints, that mean that management had already decided to do this without any input from the people on the ground, or the guy who'd be doing it: Him.
"Look at the picture, Tim. He's you and you're him."
He looked at the photo on the back of the book.
"Sure, as long as the photo isn't twenty years old or has been photoshopped all to hell and gone."
"Please give us some credit. We've taken thousands of pictures of him, both stills and video. You're the same. Same nose, same chin, same ears, same eyebrows…Same everything."
"Okay, that's the face…" Tim began.
"You're exactly the same height although you are a few pounds heavier than he is."
"Mostly muscle." Tim said, looking through the surveillance photos and videos. "Has this guy ever lifted anything heavier than a Scotch glass?"
"He does work out and working with the police keeps him in shape."
"If you say so." Tim grumped.
"Tim, this is the kind of case that the President set up the Team for. We know a little about whoever had the detective's mother, and all the rest, murdered. He's politically powerful, has financial resources that don't come from any legitimate source, he has connections with really bad people and he's utterly ruthless."
The boss decided to put his two cents worth in.
"He could be a politician, a Senator, a Governor, or maybe one of those people who go from elective office, to appointive office to the private sector and back again. Maybe he's a behind the scenes kind of a guy, a money man."
"With all of this Presidential power, why don't we just sneak in, quietly grab the NYPD's files and forget about this?" Tim asked.
"The detective knows that this all started with dirty cops, so she doesn't trust anyone but her two detectives and the writer. Who knows what she may have stashed away where the NYPD doesn't know about it?"
"You've still got a problem. The writer lives with his mother and his daughter and he's tight with at least three detectives and friendly with a whole precinct full. All I have to do is one stupid thing and everyone will know I'm not who they think I am."
"Don't worry, Tim. We have that covered."
He wondered what the hell that meant. He'd soon find out.
They had burned the back of his neck, his left hand and his right leg. It hurt like hell. Now Ko, the best martial artist he'd ever met stood in front of him with a brick in his hand.
"Okay, when I exit the back door, you'll have thirty seconds before the front part of the building blows. Wait a few seconds and then run. Can you do that?"
He nodded.
"Sorry I have to hit you with the brick, but the doctors will expect to find debris of some sort in your head wound."
"I don't need you to…"
He never saw Ko's hand move. He blacked out for a moment and slumped against the wall.
"You gonna be able to do this?" Ko yelled.
He nodded which hurt like hell.
Ko ran out the back and thirty seconds later the front of the abandoned store blew. He waited for a few seconds, then staggered to the front door. He burned his other hand, gashed his leg on a piece of metal and finally staggered out of the building.
"Castle!" He heard the detective scream.
He didn't have to fake it. He collapsed onto the sidewalk and passed out. The last thought that went through his mind was: This is still the stupidest idea I ever heard of.
He woke up in the hospital. A quick check told him he wasn't handcuffed to the bed, but he was filled with painkillers. He was trained to operate under sub-optimal conditions, and quickly ran through what he needed to do.
"I see you're awake, Mr. Castle. How do you feel?"
Her nametag IDed her as a Doctor Davies.
"Awful" He croaked.
"That's to be expected, Mr. Castle. But you were very lucky. You'll heal up in no time."
"I hope so." He got a slightly confused look on his face. "Wait, what did you call me?"
"Mr. Castle. That's your name. Mr. Richard Castle. The police who brought you in were quite insistent about that."
He shook his head and wished he hadn't.
"You grabbed the wrong chart, doctor. My name is Derek Storm."
She looked down at the chart.
"It seems to be in order, but I'll talk to the police who brought you in." She left.
It was less than a minute before Kate Beckett walked in.
"Castle, is something wrong?"
"Yes. My name is not Castle. I'm Derek Storm."
"Your name is Richard Castle. You're a writer and Derek Storm is a fictional character you created. There is no Derek Storm."
"Officer, I'm sure there's a real Forrest Gump out there someplace, and a real Tom Sawyer and a real Bruce Wayne. And I think I'd know who I am better than someone who just brought me to the hospital today."
Kate took a deep breath.
"I've known you for over three years. You've been following me to do research for a series of books. I know you, Castle. I know you."
"Okay, officer, so there's a guy out there called Richard Castle and he looks like me, but my name is still Derek Storm."
"My name is Detective Kate Beckett and yours is Rick Castle."
At that point Dr. Davies came in.
"Detective, my patient needs some rest. He's been through a lot today and concussions are always tricky. Perhaps you could come back tomorrow?"
Kate saw she was getting nowhere with Castle and agreed.
Ryan and Esposito were having coffee at the nurses' station. She told them what had happened.
"He thinks he's Derek Storm?" Espo said. "For real?"
"For real." She turned to a nurse. "Do you have a psychiatrist on staff?"
Twenty minutes later Kate was talking to Dr. Orkowitz.
"He thinks he's a fictional character he created? That's a new one on me. The literature does note some odd results from concussions. One fellow developed a passion for ballroom dancing after being knocked unconscious. Another thought…Well, that's neither here nor there. But someone believing they're someone else, that's a new one."
"Can you talk to him?" Kate asked.
"I can ask to talk to him, but he can refuse."
Kate and her team went back to the precinct and briefed Captain Gates.
"He believes he's who?"
"Derek Storm, sir."
"And I thought that I'd heard of every insane thing that Mr. Castle could do. What do you plan to do about him."
"I was sort of hoping that being in familiar surroundings, familiar people, could help him, sir. He is disabled, you realize."
Gates stared at Kate over the top of her glasses.
"And if I refuse to help a disabled man, I look bad don't I? Does the mayor know about this?"
"No, sir."
"Let's keep it that way."
Kate went to see Martha and Alexis after her shift and they agreed on a plan.
"How are you today?" Kate asked Castle/Storm as she entered his hospital room the next morning.
"A lot better. They'll probably be letting me go tomorrow."
"Where's your home? Do you have a place to stay?"
"No, actually I just got back from overseas. I haven't had a chance to get a place yet."
"How do you plan to pay for your place?"
"Pardon?"
"You came in here with a wallet that belongs to a Richard Castle. The credit cards are for a Richard Castle and the cash belongs to him as well. And not to you."
"I'll call my company and get some money from them." He stopped for a second. "But you can't let me use Richard Castle's phone, can you?"
Kate smiled.
"You can use mine."
He dialed the phone. Kate could hear the recorded message that the number was not in service. He tried three other numbers and got the same recorded message. He did get a reply with the fourth number he tried, but it was a hardware store in the Bronx.
"Who do you work for?" Kate asked.
"Blue Arrow Logistics. We do a lot of work overseas. I can't imagine why all the numbers are gone."
"I have a suggestion. Mr. Castle's mother and daughter have generously offered to put you up in his loft in Tribeca. They have plenty of room, and you really have no other place to go, do you?"
"Why are you doing this. Officer…Detective?"
"I'm a cop and there's a mystery here. Maybe even a crime. By the way, what were you doing in an abandoned store?"
He frowned.
"I was looking for a friend."
"In an abandoned store?"
"Yeah, that is odd. I don't really remember how I got there, and before you say anything, retrograde amnesia is quite common with concussion cases, or so the doc told me."
He thought some more.
"Are you investigating the explosion? Do you think someone was trying to kill me."
"The FDNY is handling that. They should have a report in a few days."
"I'd like to see that report."
"Once the report is finished, it's a matter of public record and you can buy a copy."
He smiled.
"With the money I don't have."
"I'll give you a copy. As I said, we could have a crime here and you may be a witness at the very least, and possibly even a victim."
Kate left and went back to the 12th Precinct. She called her detectives together.
"Ryan, I want you to get with Tori and look for any evidence of a man named Derek Storm. I'm sure our Derek Storm is really Castle, but I want to check every possibility. Espo, I need you to get information on a company called Blue Arrow Logistics. They operate mainly overseas, I believe."
"I'm way ahead of you. I know some people who went to work for them. On the surface, they're a company that does contract work for the US and other governments. They build temporary base camps in Africa, the upgrade airstrips in the nastier parts of Afghanistan, they work for the Departments of Defense, State, Homeland Security and the Agency for International Development. They move food around for the UN and even for some NGOs. But, they also work for the CIA, which they keep very low key. Their planes moved African Union troops into Somalia a couple of years ago. They also have a helicopter force, including gunships, that works in Somalia, Kenya, Uganda and the Congo. Their "civilian" aircraft also do photo reconnaissance and electronic reconnaissance over a large part of Africa and the Middle East. They've done work in South America and Asia, but there are other CIA front companies that handle those areas now."
"Can anyone you know give us a line on anyone named Derek Storm. And for that matter, has Castle ever done any research with them?"
Both detectives went off while Kate did paperwork on the case they'd been working on when Castle had been injured.
After work, she went to see Dr. Carver Burke. She was not looking forward to this at all.
"Please go right in." The receptionist said. "He's expecting you."
Kate squared her shoulders and went into Dr. Burke's office.
TBC